Rosemary's Baby [RSC Film Club 49]

[LimeGreenLegend 4,277]

Our Halloween selection this year was nominated by our resident horror expert @Con, and that is Rosemary's Baby from 1968.

It stars Mia Farrow as Rosemary Woodhouse, a young pregnant woman moving into a new apartment with her husband Guy, played by director John Cassevetes.  But she soon starts to suspect that her elderly neighbours may have a less than innocent interest in her baby.  

Widely regarded as one of the great American horror films, it won several awards, including a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Ruth Gordan, who plays Rosemary's sinister neighbour Minnie.  This is another classic horror film that I haven't seen yet, so I'm looking forward to getting nice and spooked while watching it, despite the director being a giant piece of sh*t.  

god is dead, satan lives

[omarcomin71 3,892]

Nice! I have yet to see it either. It’s available now on Showtime by th way. 🙂

[omarcomin71 3,892]

 I watched it this weekend and all I have to say is, creepy!  Very well acted in my opinion. There’s something about the neighbors,  whenever they were on screen I was captivated.  A great watch for the Halloween season.  I’m glad I finally got around to watching it. 

Spoiler

The ending was a bit of a let down. I really wish Rosemary killed the baby at the end.  

 

Edited October 16, 2022 by omarcomin71

[djw180 6,980]

A very good, sinister horror, without being too scary. Mia Farrow is brilliant as Rosemary, a young woman who starts to realise her pregnancy is not quite what it seems and the weird neighbours, colluding with her husband, might have tricked her into carrying Satan's child in return for them using magic to promote his career. It's mainly quite a slow burner in terms of the horror and it builds up well towards the ending. Most of the cast seem very 60s in the way they act, a little over-acted compared to today, but that does not really detract from it. The special effects, or rather lack of them, shows it's age as well. But again I think that actually adds to the subtle scariness, such as you never see the baby, but it clearly implies if you did see it you would recognise it was the Antichrist.

 

9/10

[LimeGreenLegend 4,277]

What I found most unsettling about this film is how normal it is at the start.  It's played almost like a comedy with the young Woodhouse couple getting annoyed by their busybody elderly neighbours.  Mia Farrow and John Cassevetes are excellent as the typical hot young couple of the late 60s and although, as @djw180 mentioned, the acting can seem slightly more performative than is the standard today, they still come across as real people, which makes their descent into the occult even more distressing for us.  Farrow gives an amazing performance here as a woman who is slowly losing her mind and doesn't know who to trust, but I think props have to be given to Cassavetes also.  His slow turn from loving, supportive husband to manipulative gas-lighter is expertly pitched so that until a long way into the film we don't know if he's as ignorant as she is or a collaborator with their Satan worshipping neighbours, the Castavets.  

Minnie Castavet, played by Ruth Gordon, is my favourite character in the film.  What I like about her is that she never really changes, she is still acting the same way at the end of the film as at the start.  It makes it even more sinister at the end of the film that she is still the same nosey, chatty old woman.  She doesn't suddenly start talking differently, she is who she is, and the context makes it creepy.  I urge you all to watch the film Harold and Maude, which she starred in a few years after this.  It has nothing to do with Rosemary's Baby, I just think it's an amazing film with another amazing performance by her.  

I did find that it dragged in the second act, and I almost got annoyed at how long it took Rosemary to realise that something untoward was going on.  I also found the direction to be a little pedestrian, compared to the piece-of-sh*t director's other films like Repulsion and Chinatown.  But perhaps that adds to the very normal facade that the film presents, mirroring the facade put on by the Castavets and their occult knitting circle.  That said, this is still a well crafted thriller that is propped up by some fantastic performances.  8/10